


Midnight Stars

by marvelousmarveldream



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Mass Effect 1, Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2017-03-06
Packaged: 2018-08-29 10:34:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8486065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marvelousmarveldream/pseuds/marvelousmarveldream
Summary: Everyone has a story.  Some stories are never told, hidden from existence.  But there are some whose stories rise above all others, through everything.  This is the story of General Selina Kopp and her adventures with Commander John Shepard on the Normandy.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Okay, so I'm beyond obsessed with mass effect and as much as I love Shenko (I'll probably write a Shenko story too) I have had this idea for forever and it never left me. So, I'm just going to share this idea. There will be tweaks to the story line and not everything will be in there. The dialogue is following the base line of the story so if there are any mistakes, please let me know!

The woman walked through the C-Sec headquarters, laughing silently at the responses of the officers.  Some simply nodded while most quickly moved away or just stared in shock.  She had unusual clothing for someone of her status, a wine red leather jacket with a tight black tank top and tight black jeans as well as heeled short boots.  Her nails were long and painted a deep maroon colour, her light brown hair ending just below her shoulders, and her makeup simple, but dark.  Her eyes were outlined in black eyeliner which contrasted nicely with the light colored eyeshadow you could see above it.  Her lashes were long and thick and her lips were painted a simple and elegant red, popping out against her pale skin.  She had multiple rings one her fingers but the most noticeable elements of her appearance were the two silver necklaces, one holding Alliance Military dog tags and the other holding the mark of the League.

The woman made her way into the elevator that led up to the docking bay and relaxed as it slowly inched upwards.  She leaned against the back wall, crossing her arms and tapping her foot.  When the doors finally opened, she smiled at the familiar figure of Captain David Anderson.

“Glad to see you finally made it here General,” the Captain said with an undertone of annoyance.

“Sorry, there was traffic on the way here,” the General replied sarcastically before taking his hand and being pulled into an unexpected hug.  Anderson led her onto the ship that was docked, the  _ Normandy _ .  As the General surveyed the CIC, she smiled as she noticed a familiar turian head up at the bridge.  

“I’ll be around if you need me General.  Make yourself at home,” Anderson said before he walked off towards other crew members.  The General walked up the bridge and leaned against the entry frame, crossing her arms again.  She heard the tail end of the turian’s compliment to the pilot on his flight checks before clearing her throat.  All four of the men in the bridge turned towards the woman and stared before she was engulfed in a hug by the turian.

“Sel!  What are you doing here?” The turian asked as he released her.

“Hey Nihlus.  Good to see you too,” she responded dryly.  “I’m here as backup.”

“Commander John Shepard ma’am.  Pleasure to meet you.”

“General Selina Kopp, at your service Commander.”  Selina shook Shepard’s hand, watching a flicker of recognition and astonishment cross his face.

“Flight Lieutenant Jeff Moreau.  Call me Joker ma’am,” the pilot said, tipping his hat towards her while grinning.

“Well then Joker, call me Selina,” she said while grinning back.

“Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko ma’am,” the other man sitting next to Joker said before getting up and saluting.  He had a rough and low voice, calming in a strange way.

“At ease Lieutenant.  No need for formalities.  Selina to you too.  All of you can call me that.”  Selina observed the Lieutenant.  He was very attractive, well built and tall.  There was evidence of a biotic amp, enticing Selina.  She was a human biotic as well, with a few other implants.  You couldn’t see it, but she had a computer chip inside of her head.  It allowed her to control and hack electronics from a distance and everything she saw was automatically recorded unless she shut her chip off which was a rare occurrence.  She nodded to the three men in the bridge before following Nihlus out towards the meeting room.  She walked in behind him and waved to Anderson before sitting in one of the chairs, crossing her legs and tapping the arm of the chair.

“Commander?  Can you head down to the meeting room?”

“She’s on her way Captain.  Watch out, Nihlus is headed your way.  And the General, and damn she is hot!”

“They are both already here Lieutenant.”

“Oh, um, sorry, um Joker out.”  Selina laughed at Joker’s stuttering and Anderson left the room for a moment.  Shepard walked in and Nihlus looked up at her.

“Good, you’re here.  I was hoping to get a chance to talk to you.  I wonder if this Eden Prime is what it’s supposed to be,” he pondered.

“I’ve been there before, it’s a beautiful colony,” Shepard responded quietly.  Anderson walked into the room and gave a hard look to Nihlus.

“I think we should tell the Commander exactly what is going on,” Anderson said.

“You are being considered as humanity’s first Spectre Shepard.  This is supposed to be a simple shakedown run, Nihlus is here to evaluate your performance.  I’m here in case something goes majorly wrong,” Selina says, sparing a quick glance in Anderson’s direction.  Anderson began to open his mouth to speak but Joker cut him off.

“Sir?  Incoming message from the colony.  I’ll patch it through.”  The video began and it was filled with static, gunshots, and yelling.

“This mission just got a hell of a lot more complicated,” Selina said before standing up.  “I’d suit up Commander, get your ground team ready.  I’ll be between you and Nihlus the whole time.  You need me, just comm through.  I’ll be there.”  Shepard nodded and the three going onto the ground filed out.  Selina walked over to the temporary locker that she had on the ship and began to change into her armor.  It wasn’t standard armor, really it was only a fabric that could withstand even more than the most advanced Alliance armor that was made.  It was a simple black leather catsuit that had straps as sleeves.  She had braces for her forearms that she strapped on as well as fingerless gloves and boots with unusually high heels on it.  There was a bar attaching the bottom of the shoe to the bottom of the heel, allowing her to walk on uneven and soft ground without sinking into it.  The bar retracted if she needed it too, allowing her shoe to become a weapon itself, the sharp and pointy end of the heel reinforced with metal.  She snapped her belt on and attached a few knives and extra ammo onto it.  She placed two Striker VI pistols into her thigh holsters, strapped an ERS assault rifle and a Viper V sniper rifle onto her back with a Katana III shotgun underneath them.  She grabbed her simple black staff, weapon of choice, and flipped it around a few times before sliding it between the two rifles.  She checked for her League necklace and wrapped her hand around it before walking to the airlock.

She stood next to Nihlus, leaning against the wall and waiting for her drop point.

“Hitting drop point one sir,” Joker called out.  Nihlus jumped out of the ship and Selina pushed off of the wall.

“Drop point two in three, two, one,” Joker counted down.  Selina took a small running start and leaped off of the edge of the ship, free falling for a minute.  She tucked herself into a ball and rolled a few times in the air, placing her in the perfect position.  Her feet slammed into the ground and she ran to keep herself from falling over.  She eventually slowed to a stop and pulled out a pistol, holding it in front of her.

“On the ground.  Status?”  She only got static back.  Cursing, she started to move forward, up and over the hill.  She saw a young woman shooting at what looked to be synthetic creatures and grabbed her sniper rifle, kneeling down and focusing on the creatures.  As she shot one of them, she noticed that they were something that hadn’t been seen for a long time.  Geth.  They had been behind the veil from years, almost no one alive had even seen them.  Selina picked off some of the Geth, the woman shooting some more, then a few more shots were fired.  Shepard.  Selina stood up and made her way down the hill and over to the woman.  Shepard and Kaidan walked up to the two women and Selina raised her eyebrow.

“Jenkins?”  Shepard only shook his head.

“We called it over the comms,” Kaidan said, staring at her.

“I’ve just been getting static since I landed.”  Kaidan walked over to her and motioned for her to give him her omni tool.  Acquiescing, she handed him the piece of tech before joining the Commander and the woman.

“Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams ma’am and sir!”  Ashley saluted the two and Selina smiled.

“General Selina Kopp.  You’ve done a hell of a job here.  Where’s the rest of your unit?”

“Dead.  Those synthetic bastards shot ‘em all down.”

“I’m sorry to hear that Chief.  Commander John Shepard,” he said, holding out his hand.  Selina bent down next to one of the fallen Geth and turned it over.  It’s flashlight head was no longer shining and she could see a plethora of wires the bullets had exposed.  She stood back up and Kaidan handed her back her omni tool.

“Not sure what happened, I had to restart it.  It should work now.”  Selina nodded to him and smiled thankfully before slipping it back onto her arm.  

“We should keep moving General,” Shepard said.

“Are you all okay?  I need to catch up to Nihlus.”  Shepard nodded and Selina backed up before beginning to run.  She ran up the hill and turned in the direction of the camp.  She slipped behind the buildings and eventually made it past the camp filled with Geth.  She took a few out on her way to the docking bay and eventually saw Nihlus standing, surrounded by crates.  She was about to walk over to him when she spotted another familiar turian, Council Spectre Saren Arterius.  Her sniper rifle was out and pointed at Saren the minute that he walked over to Nihlus.  Everything happened in a flash.  Saren shot Nihlus and Selina shot Saren.  But it didn’t kill him.  He glanced over to where she was but she did what she was known for before he could see her, she disappeared.  Saren walked off and Selina sprinted out of the shadows before kneeling beside Nihlus.  

“Dammit Nihlus, come on!  Don’t die on me now.  Please.  Nihlus please!”  He took his final breath just before Shepard, Ashley, and Kaidan approached her.

“General?  What the hell happened?”  Selina didn’t say anything, only glared down at Nihlus’ body.  He had left her.  Her best friend was gone.  He promised he wouldn’t leave her.

“Selina?”  She heard Kaidan before she realized that he had crouched down next to her.  His voice was low and soft.  He rested his hand on her shoulder and she looked over at him.  Her only response was a whispered “Saren”.  She pulled away from him before she could break down and stood back up.  A dock worker emerged from behind a pile of crates.  Everyone lifted their gun up to him and he raised his hands in surrender.

“What are you doing here?” Selina snapped at him.  

“I work here, sometimes, I just get a little tired and I take a few minutes behind those crates over there-”

“Did you see anything?”  Shepard asked him before lowering his gun.  Selina was the only one still holding a gun to his face.  The dock worker only recounted everything that Selina already knew, that she had already seen, heard, that incident that would forever be burned into her head.  As she followed Shepard off towards the Prothean Beacon, all she could think was how she was going to tell his pregnant wife that she, the one who swore to keep him alive, let him die.

They reached the beacon after Saren did.  Selina had hoped to run into him, erase him from this galaxy.  The ship that Saren must have been on flew off, allowing the  _ Normandy  _ to land.  Selina snapped out of the trance that she had been in since Nihlus died when she saw Kaidan getting dragged towards the beacon.  She started running for him but Shepard was closer and got there first.  Selina caught Kaidan as he was vaulted towards her and tried to use her biotics to pull Shepard out.  Shepard had collapsed by the time her biotics broke through the barrier that was around the beacon.  Selina ran over to Shepard and checked his pulse.  Alive.  He was alive.  Thank God.  She and Kaidan dragged Shepard up and motioned for Ashley to join them in dragging Shepard onto the ship.  Ashley took Selina’s place as Selina ran to get Nihlus.  Jenkins had already been picked up but Nihlus wasn’t in a landing zone.  She managed to hoist Nihlus over her shoulder and made her way back to the  _ Normandy.   _ Anderson helped her out once she boarded and took Nihlus off of her shoulder.  They placed him next to Jenkins and Chakwas began their respective post mortem procedures.  

“Is there somewhere secure I can contact the League?” Selina asked and Anderson pointed her over to the room that was next to Kaidan’s station.  She made her way over to the room and nodded to Kaidan before stepping in.  It appeared to be a backup med bay that served as a tech lab if needed.  She quickly set up the connection and stood, waiting for the League to pick up.

“Identification and password confirmation,” a VI asked her.

“Head General Selina Kopp.   Успех любой ценой. Никогда не терпят неудачу.”  The VI transferred her to the Asari head, Arcangela.

“Selina, how did it go?  Is the Spectre recruit secured?”

“Staff Commander John Shepard is alive, hopefully he wakes up soon.  The beacon dragged him in and it somehow knocked him out.  Council Spectre Nihlus Kryik is dead.  Council Spectre Saren Arterius killed him.  Alliance Unit 212 are all dead except for Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams.  Lieutenant Richard L. Jenkins is dead.  The Geth are under Council Spectre Saren Arterius’ control.”  Arcangela stared at Selina blankly for a moment.

“Well shit.”  Selina barked out a laugh and nodded.

“I agree.  The Council is going to refuse to strip Saren of his title, we need to advocate for Shepard.  It would help if you and Bellini showed up.”

“We’ll be there.  Any word on Masthen?”

“Nothing.  But we’ll find him, I promise.”  Arcangela nodded.

“I have a meeting, but we’ll be at the Citadel in time.  Keep me updated on the Commander.”  Selina nodded and cut the connection before sitting down on one of the beds.  She stayed awake for the rest of the night, unable to sleep.  She only saw Nihlus being killed, over and over again with the odd dead Commander thrown in there.  Eventually, she left her room and walked over to the med bay, sitting beside Shepard, checking the screens constantly.

“Wake up Shepard.  The galaxy needs you.”  Selina sat in the med bay for the rest of the night, only leaving in the early hours of the morning before anyone could see her in there.  She prepared herself to tell Nihlus’ wife the news.  His wife had been pregnant.  They were going to be a family.  Selina was meant to be the cool aunt that would show up at random times to antagonize her “brother”.  Now that dream would never happen.  The family would never ever be complete again.  And it was all her fault for being too slow, but not foreseeing that it would be blocked, for not shooting Saren the minute she saw him.  It was all her fault, everything was her fault.  And there was no way to fix it.

 

Selina walked out of the makeshift med bay a few hours later, running her hand through her hair, wearing the clothes she wore onto the ship.  Her heels made no sound as she walked across the crew deck floor over to the med bay.  She saw Kaidan walk out of the bay with his head hung low.

“It wasn’t your fault you know,” she called out to him.  His head shot up and he looked at her blankly for a moment before he realized what she had said.

“It was though.  I made a rookie mistake and got too close.  He pushed me out and was put in my place.”

“No.  From where I saw you, you were far enough back that it shouldn’t have affected you.  It is not your fault.”  Kaidan nodded and finally walked over to her, sitting down next to her at one of the tables in the mess.

“You know Nihlus isn’t your fault right?”

“That’s the thing though, that was my fault.  I made a bad shot.”

“You?  Making a bad shot?  I’ve seen your record.  You have been considered the best shot in the galaxy by everyone that you’ve ever worked with.  You don’t make bad shots.”

“Not everyone can be perfect all the time.”

“What really happened General?”

“Like I said before Lieutenant, it’s Selina.”  Kaidan looked at her and shook his head before crossing his arms.  “I was behind Nihlus, Saren walked out and I had my rifle ready.  I should have seen him ready to shoot Nihlus.  I should have aimed it better.  It didn’t kill him like it should have.”

“You can’t see everything.  You reacted as best as you could, base reflexes.  You reacted correctly and you at least hit him.  That counts for something.  Not every shot kills.”  Kaidan sighed when he realized she wasn’t backing down.  He placed his hand over her’s before continuing.  “You can’t blame yourself for everything.  You tried.  You did damn well.  You can’t save everyone.”  Selina looked up from the table and smiled before nodding.  Her head shot over towards the med bay as she saw Shepard slowly rise.  She and Kaidan stood up quickly and walked into the med bay.  Chakwas was doing her customary checks.

“Brain function seems normal.  You should be fine.  I suggest taking it easy for a little while,” Chakwas said, giving Shepard a hard look.  

“Commander.  Good to see you up,” Selina said, smiling at him.

“Selina, good to be up.  Please, call me Shepard,” he replied, smiling at her.  Selina nodded and bumped Kaidan’s shoulder.

“See, he can call me Selina.  Why are you incapable of it?”  Kaidan laughed before shaking his head.

“I’m too polite apparently.”  Selina smirked and backed out with the excuse of going to report to Anderson.

“So, a turian, biotic, and soldier walk into a bar.  The turian turns to the biotic and says-”

“Get to the point Selina.”  She smirked at Anderson and leaned against the bar by the galaxy map.

“Shepard’s up.  He appears to be just fine.  No need to worry David.  I do believe that he would make an exceptional Spectre though.  Surviving that?  Definitely Spectre worthy.”

“Who’ll advocate for him other than me and Udina?”

“The League.  We want him in as a Spectre.  We prefer to know the people who do illegal things under legal authority.”  Anderson laughed and nodded.

“Sure.  When you can get all the heads in one place you tell me.”

“You only need three.  Asari, turian, and human.  The other heads pass information through them.  As long as they are kept in the loop, they don’t mind skipping out on the bullshit politics.”

“Can you get the three heads?”

“Definitely.  They are actually on their way to the Citadel right now.”  Anderson looked at her in shock but recovered quickly.  “The League has your back David.  They have Shepard’s back.  Trust me.”  Anderson nodded and grinned before Selina walked off to set up a connection with the League.  She stepped into the place she had begun to think of as the Tech Lab and quickly set up a secure line to message the League.

 

COMMANDER SHEPARD AWAKE AND FUNCTIONING AS BEFORE.  NO ISSUES.

 

**KEEP THE COMMANDER SAFE.  WILL ARRIVE AT CITADEL AT 1400 CITADEL TIME.**

 

UNDERSTOOD.  BE PREPARED TO ADVOCATE FOR BOTH SPECTRE POSITION AND AGAINST COUNCIL SPECTRE SAREN ARTERIUS.

 

**UNDERSTOOD.  KEEP IN CONTACT.**

 

Selina cut the line and walked out of the lab, making her way back up to the CIC.

“Bridge to all crew.  Arriving at the Citadel in 2 hours.  I repeat, arriving at the Citadel in 2 hours,” Joker radioed throughout the ship.  Selina walked up to the bridge and stood behind Joker.

“Oh, uh, hey General!”

“Selina, Joker.  It’s Selina.”

“Sorry, uh, Selina.  Um, about what I said before Eden Prime-”

“Joker, calm down.  It’s completely fine.  You aren’t the first person to say that.”  Joker nervously nodded and laughed a little before relaxing slightly.

“So, what readings did you pick up on Eden Prime?”

“Super high technology and that ship that Saren had, I don’t think it's a normal ship.  It might be Geth technology, but I’m not entirely sure that it is.  It seems too, I don’t know, life like?  It didn’t give off normal ship readings.”  Selina nodded and looked at the readings that Joker had sent to her omni tool.  

“Definitely not normal.  Doesn’t seem to compare to Geth readings.  But I guess Geth tech is the best guess we have right now.  We’ll keep searching.  I’m gonna send this off to the League.  They’ll work through some other comparisons that I can’t on the ship.”

“Wait, the League?”

“Yeah.  I’m a member.”

“Holy shit!  Seriously?”

“Mhmm.”  Joker stared at her in shock before snapping out of his trance and back to the ship controls.  Selina sat down in one of the chairs next to Joker, and they sat in silence until Kaidan made his way up.  

“Half an hour until docking time?”  He asked and Joker nodded in response.  The three of them sat in silence until they began docking protocols.  Selina quickly bypassed multiple checks, understanding that they were in a rush, and got them docked much quicker than normal.  Once the ship was docked, they made their way off.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes.  You all make your way to the Tower without me,” Selina said before practically disappearing into the crowd of people.  She made her way to the Tower through back ways and met up with Arcangela and Bellini halfway there.

“Arc, hey, let’s get going,” Selina said as she reached them.  They were outside of the Tower, about to enter, when Selina heard the councilors.

“How do we know you are telling the truth?  You have no one of extreme weight advocating for you.”  Holding her head up high, Selina walked in with Arcangela and Bellini behind her.

“And if we advocate for him?” Selina said loudly, catching everyone’s attention.  They stared in shock at the three League heads.

“I, League Asari Head Arcangela Heathsten O’Thonis, advocate against Council Spectre Saren Arterius and for Council Spectre Candidate Commander John Shepard.”

“I, League Turian Head Bellini Yuri Risthenton, advocate against Council Spectre Saren Arterius and for Council Spectre Candidate Commander John Shepard.”

“And I, League Human Head General Dr. Selina Alexandra Kopp, advocate against Council Spectre Saren Arterius and for Council Spectre Candidate Commander John Shepard.”  Anderson, Udina, Kaidan, Ashley, and Shepard all looked at Selina in shock, none of them knowing that she was the human Head for the League.  

“We will give you 48 hours to gather evidence as we consider this.  We wish you luck on your expedition,” the Turian Councilor said after looking at the other two Councilors.  Everyone nodded and went walked out of the Tower.  The Council switched off immediately while Saren stayed on to stare at Selina in indignation.  Selina smirked at him before following everyone else.  She quickly said her goodbyes to the other two Heads before walking over to Udina, Anderson, Shepard, Ashley, and Kaidan.

“Selina!  How dare you do that?  And not tell us you are a Head?!”

“One, you don’t get to call me Selina.  It’s General to you Udina.  Two, I just saved all of your asses, and three, I don’t have to tell you jack shit!  That is something that is hidden and if I find that you’ve broadcasted it, you have made a complete and utter enemy out of me.  And that means that you are dead.  Do not think that is an empty threat because I swear to God it is not.  All of my enemies are dead.  I don’t think that you want to join them.  So please don’t take offence, but, well, take some God damned offence when I say this.  You are a useless bastard of a politician that nobody actually likes.  You have very little pull in the grand scheme of things and even as you try to rise higher and assert dominance, you will never be at the top and don’t think that you ever will.”  Udina stared at her in shock before huffing and storming off, muttering under his breath about lawsuits and verbal assault.  

“Thank God someone finally put him in his place.  He was the most annoying person I have met,” Anderson said after having recovered first.  There was a little bit of laughter behind him and everyone turned to Shepard who just burst into uncontrollable laughter.

“That was amazing.  Thank you.  Oh my God, that was so amazing,” Shepard said, still laughing some.  

“Alright, so, down to business, I bought you some time.  You need to find this information.  I’m going to be in meetings with the Council for a while so this is up to you.  I suggest going to find the officer in charge of the Saren case.  I think his name is Garrus Vakarian.  I’m not sure where to find him, but a man named Harkin might know.  He’s an ex C-Sec officer.  He spends most of his time in Chora’s Den.  Good luck.  I’ll see you in 48 hours, hopefully with something useful.”

“Thank you for this Selina.  Really.  It means a lot that you would help us with this,” Shepard said.

“Hey, I want Saren gone as much as you.  You know that I do.  Whatever I can do to help, I will do.  Don’t die,” Selina said before holding her hand out to shake Shepard’s.  

“We’ll get right on that lead.  Thank you again,” Shepard said.

“Thanks Selina,” Ashley said before saluting and following Shepard.

“General.  Thank you.  That is the most helpful thing we have had in awhile,” Kaidan said as formally as ever before saluting her and following the other two.  

“Keep them out of trouble David.”  Anderson only smirked at Selina.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Kaidan was still in shock.  That he was sure of.  Selina was a League Head?  Her record had the League on it, but it never said Head.  He wasn’t much one for cursing, but the only thing he could think of was holy shit.  He shook his head to clear it when they reached Chora’s Den.  He heard the gunshot before he saw the shooter and dived into cover.  He used his biotics to quickly lift them up as Ashley and Shepard shot them.  They both stood up and Kaidan leaned against the wall.  He hadn’t had enough to eat that kept up with his biotics.  

“LT?  You okay?” Ashley asked.

“Yeah Ash.  I’m good.”  Shepard looked him up and down and shook her head before leading them into Chora’s Den.  Kaidan scanned the room for Harkin and spotted him right away.  The sleazy looking man didn’t stand out too much, but he was one of the few human’s.  

“Well, I can see why so many like this place,” Kaidan said sarcastically before following Shepard over to Harkin.

“Harkin?  Commander Shepard, part of Captain Anderson’s crew.”

“Hah!  Yeah.  What do ya’ need?”

“Do you know where I can find Garrus Vakarian?”

“Hmphm.  Why would I tell you?  You’re part of a failure’s crew.  You know your dear Captain used to be a Spectre?  But his first mission fucked up so badly he was expelled from the Spectres!”

“Just tell us where to find Vakarian.”

“Fine, I heard that he was headed to the hospital.  You’ll probably find him there.  Good luck,” Harkin said before waving them off.  Shepard walked off and Kaidan followed, his eyes slightly unfocused from exhaustion.  They made their way to the hospital quickly and a turian was in there, behind cover while a group of mercs harassed a doctor.  One grabbed her and the turian quickly shot him before it turned into an all out brawl.  Kaidan quickly used his biotics to pull the doctor away from the fight before beginning to shoot.  They all went down quickly and Shepard walked over to the turian.

“You could have shot the doctor!”

“But I didn’t.  Thanks for the help.”  Shepard sighed but nodded.  The group walked over to the doctor and began to ask her questions.  She didn’t know much, she only knew that Fist was behind this, that the Shadow Broker made a deal with Saren Arterius and Saren never held up his end.  

“Kaidan, get back to the Presidium.  Eat something.  Sleep.  I’m sure Selina will help you.  We have Garrus, I’m good on backup,” Shepard said and Kaidan could only nod in agreement before leaving the trio and making his way to the transit station.  He took a cab to the Presidium and walked over to a cafe.  

“Fancy seeing you here,” Kaidan heard from behind him.  He turned and saw Selina standing behind him.  She wasn’t wearing the same outfit, the tight clothes that outlined her figure perfectly.  She was wearing a business suit with her blazer draped over her arm.  She wore heels that were high, but not high enough to make her taller than him.  He wondered how short she was considering she always wore heels.  “You need to eat Lieutenant.”

“Kaidan.  Call me Kaidan, General.”

“Only if you finally call me Selina.”

“Fine, Selina.”  She grinned and they moved up in the line.  They quickly ordered their food and Kaidan insisted on paying for her’s.  She tried to refuse but he wouldn’t budge.  They sat at a table in the back corner of the cafe.  “I thought that you were in meetings all day.”

“Not all day.  Couldn’t take that.  I sent Bellini in so I could have a break.  Damn politicians.  I hate being a Head most of the time.  Only good thing about it is I can do anything I want.  I set up parameters for myself of course, I’m not just going to kill someone,” she added on once Kaidan raised his eyebrows.  He nodded.

“And those parameters?”

“I prefer to stick to most Alliance regs, but I cross a few out.  I’m technically not Alliance, but I stay with them in case they need my help.”

“Most people who have your power would do whatever they wanted.”

“That’s too dangerous.  The only people with this kind of power are the League Heads.  Not even all of them have this power.  It depends on how much both they want, deserve, or can handle.  The Volus, for example, aren’t as much of an asset as they wish to believe.  They don’t have this power.  Theirs is more, political?  I’m not really sure how to explain it.”

“That’s understandable.  They don’t have the physical capabilities to do what other races can do.”

“Exactly.  And I’m boring you.”

“No! No it’s actually really really interesting.  I’m just tired.”  Selina looked at him then rolled her eyes.

“Go get some sleep Kaidan.”

“No, I’m fine.  I like talking with you.  I learn something new each time.”

“Alenko, do I have to order you to get some rest?”

“No ma’am,” Kaidan replied.  “Good night Selina.”

“Night Kaidan.”  She smiled at him as he stood up.  When he walked away, he could only think of how beautiful her smile was.  Then he closed his eyes and willed those thoughts away.  Fraternization regs.  It’s against the regs.  But she wasn’t really Alliance, was she?  No.  She was his superior.  No.  It wasn’t right.  He shouldn’t think like this.  But he just couldn’t help it.  The thoughts kept drifting back in.  

  
  


Selina sipped at her coffee, trying to lengthen her time away from the Tower.  Kaidan had been a welcome break, but she still had work to do.  Shepard had to become a Spectre.  Without him, there was no way that Saren would fall.  There was a storm coming; humanity would need all the help that it could get.  She sighed when she got a message from Arcangela calling her back.  She relinquished her coffee mug before standing up and making her way to the Tower.  She walked in and took her seat beside Arcangela.  She was directly across from Councilor Sparatus who nodded to her before turning back to Tevos.

“Humanity is not ready for such a responsibility!” Tevos exclaimed.

“And why, exactly, do you say that?” Arcangela broke in.

“The mission failed, you never recovered the beacon, and you only just found us.”

“We are a young race.  What did you expect from us?  To find you when we were still cave men?  Not every mission goes right.  You, of all people Councilor Tevos, should know that!  How many missions of yours failed?  Thirty?  Fifty?”  Tevos looked down and Sparatus began.

“I believe that we should consider adding Shepard to the Spectres.  He has proven his combat prowess, tactical abilities, and the ability to adapt to changing situations.  It was not his fault that the beacon was not recovered, we blame the Geth.”

“And Saren,” Bellini spoke.

“We do not know if Saren is behind this.  It is highly unlikely,” Valern replied.

“We do not know that he is not behind this!  If every single person on the ground said that it was his fault, then you should at least up the probability to very likely!” Udina screeched out.  Selina had stayed quiet throughout the meetings, the only one to.  Arcangela was calm, but she was very adamant and on the verge of losing her patience.  Bellini was constantly correcting the Councilors and he was obviously out of patience.  Udina never had any to begin with and screeched everything out.  Anderson constantly calmed him down and attempted to keep the peace.  Selina was getting a headache from the constant back and forth between all of them.

“There is one person that we have not heard from yet.  Ms. Kopp?”  Selina sighed before looking up at Tevos.

“First, it is not Miss.  It is General, or even Doctor.  Please, we have been polite so far and called you by your correct titles.  You could at least extend the same courtesy to us.”  Tevos rolled her eyes before nodding.

“Of course General Kopp.  What is your opinion on all of this?  You were on the ground.”

“I personally saw Saren Arterius shoot Nihlus Kryik in the head.  The Geth were following him.  Commander Shepard did everything that he possibly could to ensure mission success and saved, if only a few, people.  It was not his fault that the beacon exploded and his Spectre consideration should not be affected by uncontrollable circumstances.  He is an ideal candidate for Spectre.  I sincerely hope you will consider all of the good that he had done rather than only look at the very very few failures.”  Sparatus nodded to her and smiled.

“We will consider this information and hopefully come to an agreement soon.  Thank you for your time General Kopp, Head Arcangela, Head Bellini, Captain Anderson, Ambassador Udina.  Your insight has been very beneficial and we hope that the Commander can find evidence to back up your claims,” Sparatus said, always having been the calmer of the three when it came to dealing with the League.  Tevos had always been on the fence with them and Valern just plain out hated them.  The Salarian Head went rogue around a decade back and they hadn’t found another suitable Head yet.  Everyone filed out of the Tower, heading to their respective offices.

“We have to get back Selina.  Be careful, okay?  I don’t want you dying,” Bellini said, placing his hand on her shoulder.

“Me?  Dying?  Please.  Even if I died, I’d come back to life, or at least haunt your ass.  This won’t be the last you see of me,” Selina replied, winking at him and Arcangela.

“In all seriousness, please stay safe,” Arcangela said, giving Selina a hug.

“Of course Arc.  Don’t worry about me.  I’ll keep in contact.  I’ll honestly probably stay here at the Citadel.”  The two League Heads left, leaving Selina with Anderson and Udina.

“Thank you for helping us out there General.  They needed a push,” Anderson said as Udina only huffed before walking away.

“No problem.  I’m happy to help.  You need anything else?  Because otherwise I’m done with politics.”

“No, we should be all set.  Thank you again.  Go get some sleep Selina.  And food.  I’m sure you didn’t eat much on your break and you look like the walking dead,” Anderson said, concern seeping into his voice.

“Alright.  You get some sleep too David.  Don’t want our peacemaker dropping from exhaustion.”  Anderson grinned and clapped his hand on her shoulder before walking off towards his apartment near the Tower.  Selina was staying down in the Wards, it was cheaper, not that it really mattered, and much more familiar.  She crossed the Presidium floor over to the transit station, hailing a cab.  She heard loud laughter behind her and turned, smiling at the sight of Shepard, Ashley, a quarian, a krogan, and a turian.

“Selina!  My friend!” The krogan roared.

“Wrex!  Good to see you!”  He made his way over to her and crushed her in a tight hug.  “Squishy human over here, bones break easy and mine are breaking,” she croaked out.  Wrex released her with a booming laugh and clapped her on the shoulder.  She winced as her arm was almost wrenched out of it’s socket by the force.  

“You two know each other?” Shepard asked, obviously confused.

“This girl has a steel quad Shepard!  She’s helped me out of some damn tough situations.  Never even faltered to throw herself in the fire!  How she’s not dead, I have no idea!”  Wrex’s voice was loud and Selina winced, her headache coming back full force.  

“You mind if we share a cab?” Shepard said as one pulled up.

“Sure, if you all can squeeze in the back.  I’ve been crushed enough for one day,” Selina replied.  Shepard laughed and nodded, waving everyone into the back and squishing himself against the turian and the door.  Selina hopped into the front of the cab and drove to the wards.  Ashley was beside her, the other three in the back.  

“You find anything?”

“Tali over here has something that is solid proof that Saren is behind all of this.”  Selina glanced back at the quarian and smiled.

“Tali’Zorah.  It’s great to meet you.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Tali.  I’m Selina Kopp.”  The turian looked up in shock.

“Spirits!  You are Selina Kopp?”  Selina laughed and nodded.

“What did you expect?”

“Well, not someone who looks like you.  Older, more scars definitely.”  Selina shook her head.

“Sorry to disappoint you.”

“No!  No, you, uh, didn’t disappoint me, um definitely not.  Er yeah, um-”

“Hey, calm down.  It’s all cool.  It was a joke,” Selina said while laughing a little.

“Oh, yeah, a joke.  Um, okay.  Cool.”  Selina could feel Wrex laughing at the turian.

“I’m guessing that you are Garrus Vakarian?”

“Yes ma’am.  How exactly do you know that?”

“I sent Shep after you.”  Garrus nodded skeptically and relaxed a little bit.  “Where are you getting off?”

“Just around the corner.  We have the meeting in the morning so we didn’t want to be too far,” Shepard said.  Selina nodded and slowed to a stop, waving to the gaggle of humans and aliens alike before driving off towards the hole she was staying in.  She eventually made it there and let the cab go off somewhere else before walking into the dingy hotel.  She unlocked her room and kicked off her heels.  She collapsed on the bed and fell asleep, not even bothering to eat anything.

 

“Congratulations Commander.  You’re a Spectre now,” Selina said, shaking Shepard’s hand.

“Yeah, I’m not entirely sure that it’s sunk in yet,” Shepard said, trailing off some.  Selina nodded, smiling a little.

“Good luck on your mission.  I wish you well Commander.  You have a damn good team with you,” Selina said, backing away.

“You aren’t coming with us?” Shepard asked in confusion.  Selina’s head tilted to the side.

“I wasn’t really planning on it.  Always more political bullshit to work with.”

“Please, come with us.  We could really really use you.  You have freakishly amazing combat skill, tech skills, biotic skills, and connections everywhere.”  Selina sighed and nodded.

“Alright.  Sure.  You got a tech lab or something I can set up in?”

“Yeah, it’s that room across the hall from the med bay?  Pretty sure Alenko’s station is next to it.”  Selina nodded and Shepard smiled before leading her out to the docking bay.  The team waited by the airlock for them while Anderson and Udina stood a few steps away.  Selina stood with Shepard as they were given a couple of leads.  Dr. Liara T’Soni, Matriarch Benezia’s daughter, was on Therum.  She would be a good source of information on her mother.  Feros was likely attacked by Geth and Noveria was the last reported sighting of Benezia.  Udina left after he gave out the information but Anderson lingered.

“Good luck out there Shepard.  Stay safe and bring down that turian bastard.  I’m glad you have the General with you.  She’s pretty invaluable.”  Shepard laughed and shook Anderson’s hand before moving to the team.

“Selina, keep him safe.  Please.”

“Those are my orders,” Selina said under her breath before nodding and taking Anderson’s outstretched hand.  “Of course David.  I’ll keep him safe.”  Anderson pulled her into a tight hug before letting her join the others by the airlock.  Kaidan smiled at her before the group walked onto the ship.

“Selina!  You’re coming?” Joker asked while hobbling out to them.  Selina laughed and nodded.

“Get back to the cockpit Joker.  We’ve got some Prothean ruins to study,” Shepard said.

“Aye aye sir.”  He hobbled off towards the bridge and Shepard just shook her head.  

“We should make it to Therum in around 15 hours, it’s pretty far from the Citadel.  Everyone, get some rest.  We’ll head out once we get into orbit,” Shepard said before dismissing them officially.  Selina walked over to the stairs with the rest of the group.  Ashley, Garrus, and Wrex trailed off towards the elevator but Kaidan stayed on the crew deck with her.  

“Glad that you’re staying General,” he said, his raspy voice sounding a little tired and strained.

“It’s Selina, Alenko.  You okay?  You sound a little off.”  Kaidan nodded and smiled at her.  

“I’m fine ma-Selina.”  She smiled at him and nodded.

“Alright.  Get something for that migraine.”  Kaidan stared at her in shock and she laughed.  “I do go over the basics for people I work with.”  Kaidan nodded and smiled before making his way to the med bay.  Selina slipped into the tech lab and surveyed the area.  Her personal terminal would fit in the corner and she could set up a communications outlet by one of the beds.  Her tracking terminal screens could be attached to the empty wall while she could keep her weapons and suit in the compartment in one of the beds.  She opened her bag up and set up her terminal first.  She pulled out her tracking screens next and began to unlatch their integration mechanisms.  They sank into the wall and began to connect with the ship’s computers, leaving no trace behind.  She took out her suit and all of her weapons and began to organize them in the bed compartment.  The smaller guns came first with the larger guns at the end of the line.  Her knives were in another row, from the smallest dagger to the largest machete.  Her choice weapon though was the staff and she had two of them.  An elaborate one with symbols illustrating the fact that she was part of the League and a simple black metal one.  She simply placed them on a bench by her bed.

The communications outlet was more complicated.  It involved a multitude of wires that constantly had to be untangled and reattached.  After she managed to get it connected, she decided to go and explore the ship.  She nodded to Kaidan as she walked over to the elevator, activating it to head down to the cargo hold.  It was, by far, the slowest elevator in the world.  When it finally stopped she stepped out and spotted the turian, Garrus, by the mako.  Walking over, she leaned against his station.

“So, Garrus right?  How, exactly, do you know me?”

“Uh, yeah, it’s Garrus.  Most turians have heard of you considering you are practically the only human to help us after the Contact War.  You saved a few of our fleets a few years back.  Actually, one of those fleets had my father on it.  So, thank you.”

“Just doing my job.  I’m glad that he’s alive.”  Garrus’ mandibles twitched in what she guessed was a smile.

“What are you doing down here?”

“I got bored.  Figured I’d explore.  Get to know my teammates.  What’s your story?”

“Pretty boring.  I did the standard turian military phase then joined C-Sec for my dad.  Then I rose in ranks, too many regs.  I had to get out of there.  Shepard came around and invited me to join him.  I wasn’t exactly in the position to refuse.  What about you?”

“Haven’t really ever had too many regs.  I follow most of the Alliance ones though.  Everyone needs limitations, a code of honor.  Um, I’ve been League most of my life.  I’m sure you know some about the League.”

“Yeah, the League of Guardians.  Everyone’s heard of them.  Most want to be them.  Not really sure how they get picked but I know that they are the most united organization in the galaxy.”

“You’re born into the League.  The League tracks every single birth.  They pay special attention to the children who have family members of great prestige in any form.  Not everyone fights, some are intel collectors, some are diplomats, some are infiltrators.  It just depends.  Then, there are the Heads.  Every single species in the galaxy has a Head in the League but depending on what the species can do for the galaxy itself determines what each Head can do and know.  Certain information is privileged information that only technical masters can know while others are reserved for those with biotic potential.  Some intel is for soldiers while there is some that everyone can access.  There are only four people who have complete access to all information that flows throughout the League.  The asari, turian, salarian, and human Heads.”

“Wait, why only those four?  I mean, yeah, the first three are council species, but humans too?  No offense or anything.”

“No, no.  It’s fine.  It was before my time so I don’t really know.  There are theories of course, but nothing definitive.”  Garrus nodded and one of his talons twitched.  “I’ll let you get back to your calibrations.  Have fun messing with the mako.”

“Thanks General.”

“Selina.  Call me Selina.”  Garrus nodded and turned back to his calibrations while Selina made her way over to Wrex.

“Selina!  Glad you’re on board.  If the rest of these squishy humans are anything like you I’m sure I’ll be able to at least tolerate them.  Maybe not the turian.”

“Alright Wrex.  Don’t kill anyone on the team would you?  Shepard would be pissed.”  Wrex let out a booming laugh.

“No killing.  Got it.  Did you ever find my family’s armor?”

“I have a pretty good idea of where it is.  I can send the coordinates to Shepard if you want.”

“Yeah, yeah, that works.”  Selina noticed Ashley staring at the two of them from the corner of her eye and smiled.

“I’m gonna go talk to Williams.  So long, Wrex.”  Selina walked over to Ashley before leaning against the weapons bench.

“How you holding up Williams?”

“I’m doing fine ma’am.”

“Just call me Selina.”

“In that case, it’s Ash.  I have to say, Selina, that it’s a honor to be on the same ship as a Guardian.  You are all legends.  Especially you.  I’m kinda shocked that Shep didn’t know who you were.”

“Yeah, so am I.  Thought that he did the homework on the team.  Then again, I didn’t give too much warning.”  Ashley smirked and set down the barrel of the Reaper II sniper rifle that was in her hand.

“I heard that you were late, then sassed the Captain.  I’m guessing you know him pretty well?”

“Yeah, I’ve teamed up with him a few times.  He’s a good man, definitely by the books but he rebels when he has to.  It’s pretty refreshing.  I have a question, why are you still only a Chief?  You seem too good for that position.”

“My grandfather kind of placed a curse on the Williams name.”

“I remember him.  He did what he had to do to save his men.  Nothing bad about that.  I would have done the same exact thing.”  Ashley smiled at Selina before smiling.  

“Thanks.  No one has really ever told me that other than family.”

“Someone should have.  I’m going to go check on Tali, I’ll talk to you later okay?”

“Yeah, of course.  See ya Selina.”

“Bye Ash.”  Selina walked off towards engineering and nodded to Adams before walking over to the quarian.  “How are you liking the ship so far Tali?” Tali turned around quickly with a surprised look on her face.  “Sorry, did I scare you?”

“I’m easily scared, it’s a normal thing.  It’s amazing General!  It’s so quiet.  How on earth did you fit a drive core this large into a ship this small?”

“It’s just Selina, Tali.  And I’m not sure if I’m being honest.  I’m sure that Adams knows.  The crew treating you alright?”

“Oh they are great!  Very welcoming.  This is an amazing opportunity.”  Selina smiled at the zealous quarian.  She truly was very sweet and obviously young if she was on her pilgrimage.  

“Hey Tali?  Can you help me out with this?” One of the engineers yelled over for her.

“I’ll see you later Tali.  Have fun!”

“Bye Selina!”  Selina walked out of engineering and into the slow elevator.  Once she finally reached the second level of the ship, she walked up the stairs and leaned against the edge of the Galaxy Map.  Shepard looked over at her and smiled.

“How’s the crew?  Haven’t been able to check on them myself yet.”

“I hit most of them.  Kaidan disappeared.  The others are all good, excited to be here.  Except maybe Wrex.  He wants to be here, don’t get me wrong, but he’s not at the same level as the others.”  Shepard nodded and looked at the map again.  “What do you think about this Dr. T’Soni?”

“I’m not really sure.  I’m a little worried about what might happen down there.  This whole thing with the Geth, it doesn’t add up.  Why would they follow Saren?”

“Maybe they aren’t following him.  Maybe there’s someone else in charge.”  Shepard nodded, deep in thought.  “Don’t think too hard on it.  I’m just a cynical old lady on the inside, a conspiracy theorist.”  Shepard laughed and nodded.

“Alright.  I do have a question.  Would you be a crazy cat lady?”  Selina glared and sighed.

“I’d forget to feed the damned thing.”  Shepard laughed even harder and some heads turned towards the two.  Pressly looked on in annoyance but the two officers ignored him, continuing to banter back and forth.  Eventually, Joker spoke over the loudspeaker that they were above Therum.

“Selina, suit up.  I’m bringing Alenko and Garrus with us.”  Selina nodded and jogged down the stairs towards her tech lab area.  She saw Kaidan standing by his station and knocked on the wall by him.

“Suit up Alenko, we’re going out.”

“Aye aye ma’am.”  She slipped into the room and grabbed her suit, stripping from her normal clothes and tugging the suit on.  She grabbed a few knives and the black staff before grabbing the same guns that she had used on her last mission.  She slipped them into their holsters and shoved her feet into the heeled boots before walking out of the room.  She rode the elevator down to the cargo bay with Kaidan, pulling her hair back into a high ponytail.  The two left the elevator and made their way over to the Mako.

“Someone’s gonna have to sit in another’s lap.  Shep’s driving and I claim shotgun.  You two get the back, have fun sorting all that out,” Garrus said, smirking at us.  Or, attempting to Selina guessed.  She could see Kaidan’s blush creeping down his neck from the corner of her eyes and laughed a little.

“This gonna be a problem Lieutenant?”

“Uh, no ma’am.”  Selina laughed a little harder and let the other three climb in before making her way onto Kaidan’s lap.  She shifted around a little to get comfortable on the hard armor and she could practically feel his blush.  He was growing redder and redder by the minute and as she shifted just a little bit more, he grabbed her waist and positioned her in a better position, his hands remaining to keep her still.  She laughed quietly and Garrus looked back at them, doing his strange Turian smirk.  Selina smirked back at him and leaned against Kaidan.  Kaidan rolled his eyes and  eventually just let her settle down in his lap.  

“Hey Shep?  Where are we going exactly?”

“To Feros Selina, to Fer-” Shepard was cut off as the Mako dropped and the wind rushed past too loudly for anyone to be heard.  Selina laughed while Kaidan held onto her waist tightly.  Garrus just gripped the seat and Shepard grinned, the vehicle slamming into the ground and jolting forwards.


	3. Chapter 3

“I am never letting you drive again,” Garrus snarked.  “I mean, you didn’t even drop us off at Feros!  It’s some random ass planet that has about five million bumps that somehow you manage to hit.”  Selina leaned against the Mako with Kaidan beside her as Garrus and Shepard fought.  Thinking that they were above Feros, Shepard had told Joker to stop at the planet that they were currently on.  Joker had looked at him strangely, that Selina remembered, but he had done as Shepard asked.  Selina laughed as Garrus threw his claws up in the air in exasperation.

“Do you think this is going to happen every time?” Kaidan asked and Selina nodded her head.

“Oh yeah.  They seem like the type to bicker.  Then end up falling in love with each other.  Stereotypical romance vid stuff.”  Kaidan laughed and nodded.

“Yeah, I can see that happening.  Not really sure how that would work though, Garrus would always get his mandibles stuck on Shepard’s skin.”

“Once you learn how to maneuver around them it gets a lot easier.  Then it’s mostly about not getting scrapes from the sca-”

“Okay, I think I get the picture.”  Selina laughed at his face when she brought up the scales and smirked at him before pushing off the Mako and walking towards the two bickering men.

“Hey, boys, shouldn’t we get back to the ship and to the right planet?”  Shepard glared before storming off towards the car.  Garrus managed to get there before Shepard did and managed to steal the driver’s seat.  Selina ended up looking at the GPS in the vehicle and sighed.  “Looks like we are on the right planet actually.  Therum.  Shepard, you set a course for Therum,” Selina said, running her hand through her hair.  Shepard sighed and collapsed into the passenger seat of the tank.  

“Of course I did.  Alright, let’s get going.  We have an asari to save.”  Selina climbed back into the truck and Kaidan helped situate her comfortable into his lap.  Garrus started up the truck and began driving, safer than Shepard did.  They drove through a few bends before a drop ship showed up and some strange Geth creatures landed on the road in front of them.  The rockets that the Mako had equipped blasted through them quickly and the four continued on their way.  There were cannons and those same large creatures in front of them all the way into one of the bases.  The gate was shut and Garrus was being too careful.  Shepard eventually climbed over him and jerked the wheel to run over a couple of Geth that were piling up on the truck.  Garrus slammed on the brakes and put the tank in park before throwing Shepard out of the car.  Kaidan and Selina followed the two bickering men not long after and they entered one of the bunkers, shooting the Geth that came around the corner.  Selina pressed the button but it just opened up the door that they had tried to use to come into the bunker.  They walked over to the other bunker and Garrus shot the Geth that was hiding out in that one.  The button there opened up the gate that they wanted to go through and they all clambered back into the Mako.  They drove through the gate and had to leave the Mako at a hole that was too small for the large vehicle.  They made their way through the snipers and other Geth that were crawling around before heading to the main camp up the hill.  One of the large creatures, which Selina had taken to calling Armatures, fell from a drop ship and they had to take it down while dealing with a few more Geth.  Once they were all lying in bits on the ground, Selina finally placed her gun back in its holster.  She walked over to the Armature and grabbed a piece of its cannon.  She tossed it around in her hand before pocketing the piece and walking with the other three into the base.  They rode the elevator down a floor and heard a yell for help.

“Can someone please help me?  I’m trapped!”  Selina looked around for the source of the voice and found an asari trapped in some sort of field.  The group walked over to her and Shepard placed his hand on the field.  

“Just hang in there okay?  We’ll get you out,” Shepard said before looking around.

“I saw a mining laser a floor down or so.  I’m sure I can get it working quickly,” Selina said, jerking her head towards the elevator.  The group took the elevator down to the bottom floor and a few Geth scurried out to attack them.  The Geth were taken out quickly and Selina set to work on the mining laser.  “Hey Kaidan, can you take the knife that’s on the back of my belt?  I need to get this panel off.”  He walked over and tried to grab the knife but his hand brushed against her waist.  They both stiffened a little but quickly recovered.  He handed the knife to her and she pried the panel off and cut one of the wires quickly before asking him to put it back as she held two of the wires apart, ready to attach them.  Kaidan quickly put the knife back in her belt before backing away.  She connected wires and the laser blasted at the area underneath where the asari was trapped.  The group rode a platform up into the field that the asari was in and Selina walked over to the strange obviously Prothean console that was to her right.  She scanned it quickly and pressed a few buttons until the asari dropped to the ground.

“Thank you for getting me out of there.  I thought for sure that the Geth would have gotten me.  They have a krogan with them as well,” the asari said.  The ground shook underneath them and Selina sighed.

“That mining laser.  It must have set off some sort of seismic issue.  We need to get out of here,” Selina said, heading back to the platform.  The other four joined her and she sent the deck up to the top.  There was a krogan waiting for them, just as Liara said that there would be.  Taking out the krogan was a little more difficult than the Geth were.  Another tremor shook the facility and the five of them sprinted out to the apparently now erupting volcano.  Joker flew the Normandy down quickly and managed to get away from the volcano before it melted through the hull.

“Crew meeting in the conference room in half an hour.  Go get cleaned up,” Shepard told them.  Selina quickly slipped away from the group and showered, dressing in normal clothes before heading to the conference room.  Most of the crew were already there with the exception of Tali and Ash.  Kaidan waved her over to the chair next to him and smiled.

“Hey, you alright?  That krogan body slammed you pretty badly,” he said.

“I’m good.  Krogan have done much worse to me before.  Turns out mercs don’t like it when you get between them and their bounty.”  Kaidan laughed a little and went to reply but Tali and Ash walked in.

“Alright, now that everyone is here, let’s get started.  This is Dr. Liara T’Soni.  I expect you to treat her the same way you treat the rest of the crew.  She is a valuable resource on this mission and I’m sure she will be a great friend to us all.”  Shepard droned on for a little while but eventually dismissed them all to speak to the Council.  Selina vouched to stay behind with him.

“Was it really necessary to destroy the entire Prothean facility?”  Sparatus said, mandibles twitching.

“Would you rather us have died trying to save it?” Selina burst in, eyebrow raised.  The turian quickly backed down and the meeting soon ended.  “I hate those bastards.  Self centered, egotistical, idiots.  They have no idea what is coming.”

“I hear ya.  Sadly, we need their help,” Shepard said, smiling in sympathy.  Selina nodded and quickly disappeared, as she so often did on the ship.  She ended up sitting on part of Kaidan’s station.  He hadn’t noticed her yet, focused on rewiring something within a circuit board.  She looked at the board and smiled as she saw his confusion on why it wasn’t working.

“Try to cut the blue wire,” she said.  He stood up in shock and finally saw her sitting at his station.  He relaxed once he realized that it was only her and rolled his eyes before crouching down again and slicing the blue wire.  He went to turn on the board it and came to life.

“Thanks.  I couldn’t figure it out.”

“Some of the hardest problems have the simplest issues.”

“Do you just have like, a folder filled with words of wisdom or something?  Cause you say a lot of enlightening things at the strangest times.”  Selina laughed and shook her head.

“Just stating facts.  Nothing wise at this point.  You alright?  You really pushed your biotics today.”

“I’m fine.  Took something for my headache already.”

“Alright, you sure you’re okay?  You seem a little, I don’t really know, just not yourself I guess.”  Kaidan gave her a little half smile and nodded.

“I’m fine Gener-”

“Selina.  It’s Selina.  How many times am I going to end up telling you that?”

“Technically you and Shepard are co-CO’s.  So, you’ll probably have to tell me a lot.”  Selina rolled her eyes.

“When did we become co-CO’s?”

“When you agreed to come aboard this ship on the Saren mission.  Your ranking automatically puts you in consideration for it and Anderson thought it would be good to have two people making decisions.”

“Yeah, I can see the appeal.  I’ll let you get back to work.”

“You don’t have to go.  I don’t really have anything left to do.”  Selina smiled at him and remained at his station.  He quickly got coffee for the both of them and the two sat there, talking about random things for an hour or so.  Eventually he slipped up.  He had been talking a bit about his biotics when he made a reference to BAaT camp.  “Er, sorry.  Biotic Acclimation and Temperance Training.  Most of us called Brain Camp.  Protocol wasn’t exactly a big thing in BAaT.”

“That was that base out on Jump Zero right?”

“Uh huh.  There was a group of us there.  We had a turian trainer, Vyrnnus.  A lot of stuff happened there, most of it wasn’t good.  We were from all over.  I  was born in Singapore, moved to Vancouver.  There were people from Russia, the colonies.  A ton of different places.”

“There was a crash with element zero in the crates in ‘51, wasn’t there?”  Kaidan looked at her with a bit of surprise evident on his face.  

“You put that together huh?  Yeah, my mom was downwind of the crash when she was pregnant with me.  I guess I got lucky.  Most kids developed brain tumors or died.  I developed biotic potential.”  Selina smiled at him and placed her hand on his shoulder.

“You can tell me about BAaT when you’re ready.  If you’re ready.  I can see that it upsets you.”  He smiled at her and nodded.

“Thanks.  Most people wouldn’t notice that.  Then again, you aren’t most people, are you?”  Selina grinned.

“No.  No I am not.  Hey, wanna get something to eat?  It’s getting kinda late.”

“Oh, yeah.  Sorry.  I didn’t really notice.  Should probably work on that, biotics don’t like it when I forget to eat.”

“Yeah, I noticed.  Figured that you didn’t get much after Therum either.  Come on.”  Selina hooked her arm through his and dragged him towards the mess.  The officer there quickly handed them their meals and the two sat down at one of the tables.  They were quickly joined by Tali and Garrus who were eating their strange dextro meals.

“So, Selina, heard a rumour down on the lower deck about you and Shepard,” Garrus mentioned.  Selina looked at him with an eyebrow raised and shook her head.

“Yeah, don’t trust rumours hun.  Nothing happening there,” she said.  It hadn’t escaped her notice how Garrus had a bit of contempt in his tone.  He relaxed a little bit as she denied the accusation.

“Bridge to Mess.  Need you up here General.  We are pulling in to Feros now.  The actual Feros,” Joker called over the comm.  Selina stood up and smiled.

“I’ll see you all later.  Not sure who exactly is going to land so be ready,” she said before leaving the mess.  She made her way up to the bridge and stood next to Shepard, arms crossed.  “You sure that it’s Feros this time?”

“You’re going to hold that against me for forever aren’t you?”

“Oh yeah.  Definitely.  Never going away Shep.”  He rolled his eyes and placed his hands on Joker’s chair.  The pilot grinned as he made the smooth landing onto the planet.  “Who’s heading out there?”

“Planning to take Tali, you, and Ash.  Maybe Alenko or Liara.  Not too sure which.”  Selina nodded and turned back to look out the window.  It was a fairly barren looking planet.  It said much about the colonists and their perseverance.  They truly wanted to make Zhu’s Hope work.  “I’ll take Liara and Wrex actually.  You mind staying here with Alenko and Garrus?”

“No problem.  Go have fun on Feros.  Don’t die.”  Shepard rolled his eyes and Selina grinned before walking off the bridge.  She headed to the tech lab and sat at her private terminal, going through her emails.  She ended up deleting most of them, junk or just plain useless.  She responded to Alliance officials and League inquiries.  She sat there for hours before hearing a banging on the ship.  She walked out of the tech lab and up to the bridge.

“Uh, yeah, Commander?  There are some zombie colonists trying to come in.  My baby is gonna be hurt!  I suggest you hurry up!”

“Calm down Joker, I’ll go take care of them,” Selina said before heading back to the tech lab.  She quickly pulled on her suit and grabbed a gun, knife, and staff.  She didn’t plan to kill any of the colonists but just in case, she grabbed another pistol.  She walked out to the airlock and sealed everything behind her.  “How many can you count Joker?”

“A shit ton!”

“A bit of a more helpful number please.  I’ve already got the whole ‘shit ton’ part.”

“Looks like there’s about 15 to 25 things out there General.  You need backup?”  Kaidan had made his way to the bridge when he heard that she was heading out.

“Stick by the doors.  Just in case something gets in.”

“Aye aye ma’am.”  Selina had been holding her staff and she tightened her grip on it before punching the button to open the airlock.  The strange zombie like creatures flooded towards her.  They looked like husks, just, well, green.  She twirled her staff before hitting one of the strange things over the head with it, grabbing her pistol while they were distracted.  She went straight for headshots, smashing the faces of those nearest her in with the butt of her gun.  Soon enough, all of the green husks were lying on the ground, completely dead this time.  The airlock was still sealed and she couldn’t get back in.

“Damn, Joker, why isn’t this opening?”

“Alenko is working on it.  The cleaning thingys don’t work so they aren’t going to open.  I’m sorry, shit.  It should be done in around half an hour.  I’d go find Shep in the meantime.”

“Yeah, okay.  See you whenever Alenko fixes it.”  Selina sighed and re holstered her pistol.  

“Selina?  The hell are you doing out here?”  She looked up and saw Shepard walking over to her.

“I went to deal with the creepy green things.  The sanitizers got damaged, Alenko is working on it but we can’t get in for a little while.”

“Alright, just, stay with us.  We’re going into this den thing.  There’s a sentient plant, a Thorian.  Older than the Protheans apparently.  I don’t really know.”  Selina nodded and followed Shepard and the rest of the squad down to the den.  

“What the actual fuck is that thing?”  Selina laughed at Wrex’s reaction before moving forward.  She froze as an asari type thing was spit out of the plant.  Selina raised her gun at it and stood still, waiting for it to talk.  Shepard walked up to the asari and tried to speak but was only thrown back by a biotic flare.  Selina shot the asari in the head and turned, seeing the strange green things coming at them again.  They went down quickly but as the five of them took down multiple nodes holding the plant up, more rushed after them.  Liara let out a scream as another asari clone grabbed her and held her in a chokehold.  Selina quickly slid a knife from her sleeve and it shot towards the asari, killing the green one and causing Liara to freeze in place.  

“Th-thank you General.  I-uh we should probably get rid of that last node.”  Selina nodded and saw Wrex blast the node with his shotgun a couple of times.  Selina bent over the side of the banister by her and watched the oversized plant fall and die.  Finally.  She froze as a blue asari burst out of some sort of bubble yelling that she was free.

“I, guess I should thank you all.  My name is Shiara.  I am a - used to be a servant of Benezia.  I followed Saren when she did but he sacrificed me to get the information that the Thorian had.  The only way you can stop him is if you get the cypher, exactly as Saren got it.  Benezia lost her way, that ship of his, Sovereign, has sentient capabilities.  You have to stop him!”

“Then give me the cypher.  I have the information from the beacon,” Shepard said, stepping forward.  The asari nodded and held her hands up.  She spat out something about embracing eternity before Shepard gasped in pain as Shiara pushed into his head.  It ended almost as soon as it ended and Selina stepped up behind Shepard to support him.

“You okay Shep?”

“Yeah, yeah I’m good.”  Selina rolled her eyes and let go of him for a moment.  Shepard began to fall until Selina grabbed him again.  “Okay, a little weak.  I’ll be fine soon.”  Selina sighed and motioned for Wrex to help Shepard out.

“Thank you Shiara.  Do you need a ride somewhere?” Selina asked.

“I might stay here and help the colonists.  Ease part of the suffering that I helped to create.”  Selina smiled and nodded before rounding up the other three women wandering around the den type thing.  The group of five walked out of the cave and brought Shepard back to the ship.  Selina rubbed the back of her neck, pain emanating from the muscles there.  She pushed the button to open the airlock, hoping that it actually opened.  The door slid open and the group crammed themselves into the room.  The sanitizer passed over them a few times before the next door opened.  Selina helped Wrex take Shepard to the med bay before sitting on the cot next to him.  Garrus walked into the room and looked at Chakwas.

“How is he Doc?”

“I’m fine Garrus,” Shepard said before Chakwas could reply.

“Shut up Commander.  Doctor’s Orders.  He needs sleep and some scanning to ensure that there is nothing wrong with him internally.  Other than that, he seems to be fine.  Although, Selina, I need to treat that wound on your side.”  Selina looked at her side and saw a gash still bleeding.  She hadn’t even noticed that she had been wounded.  Kaidan walked into the room and immediately crossed over to Selina.

“What the hell happened?  You didn’t tell me you got hurt!” Kaidan said, already grabbing some stuff to clean the wound.

“Didn’t know until the Doc mentioned it.  Look, I’m fine.  Probably just got a cut from a rock when an asari threw me.”  Kaidan looked at her with a raised eyebrow before proceeding to gather the rest of the medical supplies needed.  “Look, I’m fine!  Don’t worry about me, okay?”  Kaidan sighed and shook his head.

“I need to get to the wound.  Can you take the top half off?  Doctor, after you see to Shepard, can you check if she has any more injuries?  I don’t exactly trust her judgement at this point.”

“Of course Lieutenant.”  Selina rolled her eyes at Chakwas’ immediate agreement and unzipped the top of her suit, pushing it down to her waist.  Kaidan visibly swallowed at the exposed skin before beginning to clean the gash.  The blood clotted quickly once it was clean and Kaidan pressed a bandage on it, the wound not deep enough to merit stitches.

“See?  I’m fine.  Doesn’t even need stitches.  Can I leave now?”  Chakwas rolled her eyes and nodded.  Selina quickly pulled her suit top back up and walked out of the med bay.  She had always hated them, to sterile and they just smelled strangely.  Kaidan followed her out and leaned against the open doorway to the tech lab.  “If you’re here to yell at me for being reckless, go ahead.  I wouldn’t have done anything different at any other point.”

“I know.  I swear, you are going to give me a heart attack one day.  An actual heart attack.  I am going to die of stress and heart failure because of you.”  Selina laughed and shook her head.

“Alright, you have fun with that heart failure.  Good work on the airlock cleanser.”

“Yeah, thanks.  Figures it breaks just as someone needs to get in.  What even were those things?”

“Husks but green.  Pretty sure they were Thorian husks.”  Kaidan shook his head.

“That’s just plain disgusting.”

“Yeah, the plant was even more disgusting.”

“I’ll let you get changed.  Don’t make the wound worse would you?”  Selina laughed and nodded before he left.  She quickly changed into more normal clothes before heading to her private terminal.  There was a message from Arcangela there.

 

Selina,

Heard you were headed to Feros and Noveria.  Watch out when you reach Noveria, they do not exactly like visitors, especially Spectres and Alliance people.  They also do not like League members.  Be careful.  A hint on taking out Benezia, get rid of all her commandos first.  Once they are out, it will not be difficult to take her out.  I’d be careful of anything you find there, Noveria is known for its illegal experiments.  I hope your missions are successful.  Good luck.

 

-League of Guardians Asari Head Arcangela Heathston O’Thonis

 

Selina sighed before shutting off her terminal.  She walked over to her tracking screens and looked towards the one currently tracking Benezia.  It still stated that she was in Noveria.  For how long, that had yet to be determined.  Checking the time, Selina figured that she had enough time to get some sleep before Noveria.  Laying down in her bed, she quickly drifted off.

 

By the time Selina woke up, they were almost to Noveria.  They would be docking soon and, heeding Arcangela’s warning, Selina tucked her League chain underneath her suit.  Well, her backup suit as she still had to fix or other one.  She grabbed a couple of knives as well as pistols and her staff before slipping on the heeled boots.  

“Bridge to Tech Lab.  It’s Joker, we landed and Shep wants you and Alenko on the shore party.  Liara and Tali are coming too.”

“On my way up with Alenko.”  Selina walked out of the lab and headed to Kaidan’s station.  “We’re shore party.  How long does it take you to get armor on?”

“Not long.  Clasps are difficult but I should be able to get it done in 15.”

“I’ll help with the clasps.  Let’s hurry this up.”  Kaidan nodded and the two went to retrieve his armor.  Selina quickly clasped it together, ensuring that they were solidly attached together.  The two quickly headed to the airlock after getting his weapons and Shepard was leaning against the wall with Liara, who looked uncomfortable, and Tali, who just looked plain bored.  “Sorry.  This one is slow with the armor.”  Shepard smirked and nodded.

“Let’s get going,” Shepard said, leading the party off of the Normandy.

“Elanus Risk Control, we ask that you relinquish your weapons before coming into Noveria.”

“Yeah, I’m keeping my gun.”  The group of ERC officers lifted their guns before one of them began counting down.  Selina rolled her eyes before lifting her gun to one of their heads.

“Wait!  Wait!  They have clearance.  And Spectres can carry guns on Noveria Captain.  Please, come with me.  I am so sorry about that.  I am Gianna Parasini.  Welcome to Noveria.  Is there anything I can help you with?”

“We need to get to an asari, Matriarch Benezia?  She passed through her a couple of days ago.”

“Yes, she is at Peak 15 but you will need a garage pass from Mr. Anoleis before leaving to go there.  He isn’t giving out any garage passes, though, if you find a turian named Lorik Qui'in, he may be able to get you a pass.  He should be at the hotel bar.”  Shepard nodded and led the group to the hotel.  

“She seem a little against her boss to you?” Kaidan asked Selina.

“Maybe just a little.  Could be helpful.  Hey Shep, I’m gonna go annoy Parasini and Anoleis.  Kaidan, you coming with?”

“Gotta make sure you don’t set the place on fire don’t I?”  Selina rolled her eyes before waving and hooking her arm in Kaidan’s.  The two walked around a little, watching as some people avoided them.  They eventually found Anoleis’ office and walked inside.  Parasini was at the front desk and Selina smiled as she unhooked her arm from Kaidan.

“Ms. Parasini, do you mind if we go talk to Mr. Anoleis?”  The woman looked up from her terminal and smiled before standing up.

“Oh, that is no issue!  Come along, he’s right back here.”  The woman led them back to Anoleis, a salarian who didn’t even stand up to greet them.

“If you are here to waste my time, which I can already tell that you will, just get out.”  Selina rolled her eyes and sat in a chair in front of him.

“We need a garage pass so we can get to Peak 15.  We have been searching for Matriarch Benezia, the mother of one of my teammates.”

“Well, too bad I won’t give you a garage pass.”

“Even if it is on League order?”  The salarian finally looked up from his terminal and stared at her.  

“Who ordered it?”

“Human Head.”

“Yeah, right.  Sure he did.  He never gives orders.”

“She.  And yes, yes I do.”  Anoleis laughed, an eye twitching.

“You?  The Human Head?  Yeah, right.  Give me some proof.”  Selina rolled her eyes again and pulled out her League chain, showing it to the rude salarian.  Anoleis’ eyes widened even further and he fumbled around in his desk before handing them a garage pass.  “I am so so sorry.  Please, anything that you need, just come to me.  Please.”  Selina nodded before standing up.  Kaidan shook his head as he followed her out.

“You enjoy that, don’t you?”

“Putting bastards in their place?  Oh yeah.”  He grinned at her before the two left the office.  Selina automatically spotted an annoyed Shepard glaring at an ERC officer.  She and Kaidan quickly crossed the room over to the annoyed soldier.  “Is there a problem here sir?”

“This ‘Spectre’ just caused a major disturbance within-”

“Sir, I’m am very sorry about any disturbance my partner may have made, but I can assure you that it was necessary.”  The officer only glared before walking off.  “Got the garage pass Shep.  Let’s get the hell outta here.”

“Please.  I am never coming back to Noveria.  Ever,” he said.  Selina only laughed before tossing him the garage pass and letting him lead the way to the garage.  As they walked into the garage, Selina’s sensors scrambled.

“Sensors scrambled Shep.  Watch out.”  Shepard nodded and looked around.  One of the strange creeper Geth popped out and Shepard shot it from the ceiling.  Selina grabbed her gun and shot at the Geth that emerged from the crates in front of them.  Everyone dived behind cover before shooting down the mechanical creatures.  They all fell after a few shots.  “Dumb mechanical bastards.”  The same officer from earlier in the day showed up with her gun raised.

“What the hell happened here?”  Selina rolled her eyes and pointed towards the Geth laying on the ground. The officer’s eyes widened and she holstered her gun and stepped back.  “Oh my-”  She cut herself off.  “I am so sorry.  I, just, I-”

“We’re going to take care of this issue now ma’am.  Please, don’t panic,” Shepard said.  The officer nodded and the group of them headed over to the mako, which was thankfully larger than theirs.  They could all fit in there with Tali on Liara’s lap.  Selina sat in the gunnery seat and checked the cannons quickly before nodding for Shepard to begin driving.  Shepard slammed on the gas pedal and Selina quickly pulled the emergency brake on her side.

“Okay no, Alenko, take Shep’s spot.  Please.  So I don’t die.”  Shepard glared but allowed Kaidan to switch with him, settling in the back with what looked like a pout on his face.  Kaidan pressed the gas much gentler than Shepard did and accelerated smoothly.  Just as they pulled out of the garage, there were Geth in the way.  Selina shot at them and laughed as one of them went flying over into the abyss on the other side of them.  They finally reached Peak 15 and walked into the building.  The group split up, Kaidan and Selina heading one way while Shepard, Liara, and Tali headed another way.  Not long after they split up, strange bug things hopped out at Selina.  She shrieked and ran backwards to try and get away from them.  “Fuck!  What the hell are those things?”  Kaidan shot them down and headed over to the woman pressed against the far wall.

“Selina?”  She was staring at the bugs with a blatant look of fear on her face.  He placed his hand on her shoulder and her head turned to him.  “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.  Just surprised me, sorry.”

“Selina, you screamed.  You legitimately just screamed.  And you were essentially frozen in fear for a little while.  What happened?”

“I just hate bugs.  They’re creepy, okay?”  Kaidan couldn’t hold back a laugh.  The all powerful invincible General was scared of bugs.  Because they were creepy.  “Shut up!”  Selina said, slapping his arm.

“I-I’m sorry, I just-”  Kaidan couldn’t finish he was laughing so hard.  Selina glared at him before brushing his hand away and stalking forward.  He followed her, still quietly laughing and they turned a few corners before reaching some strange core like thing.  VI core, Selina realized.  She walked into the core with Kaidan next to her.  The platform moved down to the core and she pressed a few buttons.  Everything was mixed up, causing the VI to fail.  She quickly hacked into the program and typed a few things before stepping back and watching as the VI popped up.

“Welcome to Peak 15 whe-”

“Just tell us what we need to do to get to Matriarch Benezia,” Selina said, her patience having run thin since Anoleis.  

“Currently there are-”  Selina pressed mute on the VI and enlarged the screen of repairs needing to be made.

“Shep, you copy?”

“Yeah!  You got anything?  We just have a shit ton of bugs.  Fuck!  I hate these things.  Please tell me that you have something for me!  Liara!  Do something to get rid of them!”

“Yeah, we need to make a couple of repairs.  There is some reactor core thing somewhere, I’ll send you the stuff for that.  Alenko and I can reconnect the landlines.  Meet up at the tram and don’t die so we can get out of this hell hole.”

“Copy that General.  Good luck with the creepy bugs.”  Selina groaned and turned to Kaidan.

“Let’s get moving, we need to get these landlines running.  You got the specs for ‘em?”

“Yeah, yeah.  Looks like if we make it to the roof we should be able to reconnect them quickly.  Although, it looks like there are some of the bug things up there.”  Selina sighed and nodded before the two walked through a couple of corridors.  “The elevator up is over here.  Come on,” Kaidan said, gently leading her towards the left.  The two entered the elevator and Selina leaned against the wall.  “You have any clue what those things are?”

“Rachni.  Supposedly extinct.  I’ll bet you someone found a queen egg.”  

“Shouldn’t they need a male too?”

“A queen has the genetic material from her father so she can reproduce without a male.  Creepy, disgusting, and insecty.  I’m just not even going to bother to deal with it at this point.  Leave that stuff to Shep.  I’m not the diplomatic one, obviously.”  Kaidan cracked a grin and shook his head before the elevator doors opened.  “Shit!  That’s freezing!”

“That’s what happens when you don’t wear proper armor.”  Selina glared before quickly shooting the bug that started to come near them.  “Come on, we’ll get this done quickly.”  The two split, running in the two directions to take out the abundance of rachni coming towards them.  They met back up at the landline reconnector.  Selina pressed a couple of buttons and the landlines beeped back on.  She and Kaidan headed back to the elevator and Selina pressed the button before rubbing her hand on her forehead.  She hated bugs, hated them with a passion.  She always had, even as a kid.  They were all creepy and disgusting.  Her patience was completely gone by the time they had reached the facility and the rachni didn’t help that situation in any way.  “You doing okay?  You look a little pale,” Kaidan said, walking over to her.

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine.  Just tired.  Sorry.  You doing alright?  No excruciating headache killing you?”  Kaidan smirked and shook his head.

“I’m fine.  Hey, you have biotics don’t you?  You mind me asking why you don’t really use them?”

“Never really saw the need to use them.  I have...other talents.  I use them sometimes, but not very often.  They take too long to charge sometimes.”  Kaidan nodded and smiled, stepping away from her as the elevator slowed to a stop.  Shepard stood outside of it and glared at Selina.

“You sent me into the place with the most of those bugs,” he said, bumping her shoulder.

“Better you than me honey.  Those things creep me out.”  Shepard glared and the group of them went to talk to the VI.  “Hey, Mira, anything else need to be done on this thing?”

“There is a contamination issue towards the tram station.”  Selina looked up at Shepard and sighed, they would have to the fix that issue before they could use the tram to get to Benezia.

“Alright team, let’s move out!  We need to fix this issue really quickly and then we’ll be done.  For now,” Shepard said.  He led the way towards the trams and as they quickly fixed the issue, they stepped onto the train and Selina closed her eyes, bracing herself for the inevitable shit storm to come.  


	4. Chapter 4

Her eyes opened as the tram slowed to a stop. She swung her legs off of the bench and stood beside Shepard. Her arms were crossed as she turned her head towards the other two in the small squad.  
“This seems too quiet Shepard. Nothing is jumping out to kill us yet. I don’t like it,” Selina said, shifting slightly in one spot.  
“That’s because you’re paranoid,” Shepard replied, smirking a little at the woman beside him. Selina rolled her eyes and shifted again as she looked around the seemingly peaceful lobby.  
“I might be paranoid but it’s served me well. I don’t like this. It’s not gonna end well. You know it Shepard.” Shepard sighed but nodded.  
“Yeah, something is a little off. Wish we had brought more of the team.”  
“Yeah, maybe your favorite sniper?”  
“Oh shut up,” Shepard said, glaring at Selina as she laughed before walking towards a room. The door slid open and the other three followed Shepard into the following hallway. A few twists and turns as well as quite a few stairs led the group into a room that contained a group of soldiers, likely ERS. Their guns lifted up and Shepard quickly lowered his.  
“What’s going on here?” Shepard asked. The soldiers lowered their guns as and Selina stayed behind the rest of the team, surveying the area. The soldiers seemed wary of Shepard’s team and Selina didn’t like it. Shepard conversed with the soldiers as Selina made her way forwards a little. She stood next to Liara who glanced over at her.  
“Are you alright Selina?” Liara asked quietly.  
“Something doesn’t seem right. I’m not sure what, exactly, but there is something really really wrong here. Shepard just thinks I’m paranoid, but I know that something is messed up.” Liara nodded and shifted some.  
“I believe that I am getting that feeling as well. I do not particularly like Noveria, too cold in both weather and mentality for my taste.” Selina nodded, Liara was a sensitive person. She, of all people, wouldn’t like Noveria, that was for sure. Shepard turned around to look at them and jerked her head to the left.  
“We’re gonna get going to the hot labs then we’ll go from there,” Shepard said. Selina and the others nodded before falling in-step behind Shepard. Selina made her way next to the disgruntled man and bumped her shoulder into his.  
“You alright Shep? Looking a bit annoyed.” Shepard nodded and kept moving. Selina rolled her eyes before following him into the elevator off of the tram station. They went down to the hot labs quickly and stepped out. There was a man sitting on a bench when they exited the elevator and he quickly stood.  
“Yaroslev Tartakovsky?”  
“Yes, yes, that is me. You are?”  
“Commander Shepard. Can you tell me what happened here?” Selina leaned against a wall as the man explained about the rachni breeding. It was absolutely ridiculous; if a species is extinct, it should stay extinct. “How do we activate the neutron purge?” Tartakovsky went to explain before a rachni crawled up through the vents and stabbed him through the chest. The rachni was quickly shot down and Selina stepped over it towards Tartakovsky’s body. She rummaged through his pockets before finding a datapad holding a code.  
“Shep, this probably activates the purge. Let’s do it now. Everyone get into that elevator, we won’t have long when we set it to activate.” Shepard followed Selina into the room to activate the purge while the others stood in the elevator. Selina spoke the code to the Mira VI before nodding to Shepard to open the door and start running. Shepard sprinted out of the room and Selina followed quickly after, shooting the bugs Shepard missed. She leaped over one before kicking the next and shooting the one beside it. Shepard had made it to the elevator but Selina was being surrounded by the bugs. She heard a shout and looked up to see Kaidan glowing blue. He nodded at her and she jumped, letting him pull her through the air and into the elevator. She landed directly in his arms and he tightened his hold on her, dragging her further back into the elevator. Liara pressed the button to leave the lab and the elevator shot towards the tram station. There was a rumble and a shake, signifying the purge activation. As the doors slid open, Selina realized that Kaidan still had a hold on her. He must have noticed as well considering he quickly released her. Shepard walked over to the tram and Selina followed, placing a hand on his shoulder. “You alright?”  
“I just killed so many members of an extinct species. How is that justifiable?”  
“Those weren’t rachni. They were abominations. Imagine if you took a child from their parent and locked them in a closet for eighteen years. They wouldn’t exactly be sane, would they? That’s what happened to those rachni.” Shepard nodded before straightening out and heading over to the elevator that would lead to Benezia. Selina made her way over to Liara and rested her hand on the asari’s shoulder. “Liara, are you sure you want to do this? Once we make it there, you can’t back out.”  
“I am sure General. I need to do this, I need to understand. Thank you for your worry though. It helps to know that you and Shepard care so much about your crew.” Selina nodded and smiled at Liara before catching up to Shepard.  
“Whatever happens, make sure it isn’t Liara who has to take the kill shot,” Shepard said. Selina nodded.  
“I wouldn’t let that happen, she wouldn’t be able to handle it.” Shepard nodded and they stood outside of a door. “Alright everyone!” Selina spoke, catching the team’s attention. “Inside of this room is, quite possibly, the most powerful asari matriarch in this galaxy. Everyone needs to be on high alert and ready for anything.”  
“Tali, I want you to focus on getting rid of any Geth that you find in that room. Liara, I want you to locate your mother and figure out how to weaken her.”  
“Alenko, Shepard, you two work on the commandos. I’m gonna focus on Benezia with Liara.” Shepard nodded, grinning at Selina. It wasn’t often that Selina ordered anyone, but when she did, it was always something worth seeing. Shepard had fire, fire that made someone willing to follow him into hell and back. But Selina, well, her very presence commanded respect and a sense of authority. You couldn’t be near her without understanding how much power she held. Shepard occasionally felt empathy for their enemies when they faced Selina. She was ruthless, never letting up and always completing the mission.  
Shepard looked at everyone and then opened the door. The group walked into an asari standing on a platform turned to stare at them.  
“You do not know the privilege of being a mother. There is power in creation. To shape a life. Turn it towards happiness or despair. Her children were to be ours. Raised to hunt and slay Saren’s enemies. I won’t be moved by sympathy. No matter who you bring into this confrontation.”  
“Liara’s here because she wants to be. Not because I asked her to,” Shepard said.  
“Indeed? What have you told him about me, Liara?”  
“What could I say mother? That you’re insane? Evil? Should I explain how to kill you? What could I say?”  
“Have you faced an asari commando unit before? Few humans have.”  
“I can’t believe you’d kill your own daughter,” Shepard replied.   
“I now realize I should have been stricter with her.” Benezia then waved her hands and Shepard was frozen as part of the commando unit burst into the room along with a few geth. Selina, still unnoticed, climbed a few boxes and jumped over to the top of the platform. She landed silently and crouched above Benezia. Shepard and the others made quick work of the commandos and geth as Liara attempted to convey how to bring Benezia down. The asari fell and Shepard ran up to the platform.  
“This is not over. Saren is unstoppable. My mind is filled with his light. Everything is clear.”  
“The rachni didn’t cooperate with you. Why should I?”  
“I will not betray him. You will - you...You must listen. Saren still whispers in my mind. I can fight his compulsions. Briefly. But the indoctrination is strong.”  
“Are you saying he brainwashed you?”  
“People are not themselves around Saren. You come to idolize him. Worship him. You would do anything for him. The key is Sovereign. His flagship. It is a dreadnought of incredible size and its power is extraordinary.”  
“What do you mean?”  
“Thoughts echo strangely within Sovereign. Its rooms are built at unsettling angles. The longer you stay aboard, the more Saren’s will seems correct. You sit at his feet and smile as his words pour into you. It is subtle at first. I thought I was strong enough to resist. Instead, I became a willing tool, eager to serve. He sent me here to find the location of the Mu Relay. Its position was lost thousands of years ago.”  
“Can I assume you found the coordinates?”  
“Two thousand years ago, the rachni inhabited that region of our galaxy. They discovered the relay. The rachni can share memories across generations. Queens inherit the knowledge of their mothers. I took the location of the relay from the queen’s mind. I was not gentle.” Benezia’s head dipped in shame.  
“You can still make it right. Give me the information.”  
“I was not myself. But - I should have been stronger. I transcribed the data to an OSD. Take it. Please.”  
“Knowing the relay’s coordinates is not enough. Do you know where he planned to go from there?” Liara asked.  
“Saren wouldn’t tell me his destination. But you must find out quickly. I transmitted the coordinates to him before you arrived. You have to stop - me. I can’t - his teeth are at my ear. Fingers on my spine. You should - uh, you should -”  
“Mother! I - don’t leave! Fight him!”  
“You’ve always made me proud Liara. Die!” Just as Benezia went to put Shepard in stasis again, Selina dropped down and tossed a singularity at the asari as Kaidan put up a barrier. Shepard shot at the asari as Tali helped a distraught Liara away from her mother. Selina put up biotic defenses as Kaidan sent tech attacks towards the matriarch. The asari fell and the five of them rushed towards her. “I cannot go on. You have to stop him Shepard.”  
“Hold on. We’ve got medi-gel. Maybe we can -”  
“No. He is still in my mind. I am not entirely myself. I never will be again.”  
“Mother…”  
“Good night Little Wing. I will see you again with the dawn. No light? They always said there would be - ah…” Liara let out a cry as her mother fell silent and Selina walked over, crouching down to pull the young asari into a tight hug. Liara cried into the General’s shoulder and leaned against her. As Selina held her, Shepard walked up to the rachni in the tube. Selina didn’t catch much of the conversation, too preoccupied with Liara to focus on it, but she did notice Shepard releasing the bug.   
“Liara? We need to get back to the ship. Do you need another minute?” The asari shook her head before Selina helped her up and wrapped an arm around her shoulders as a support. Tali came over to Liara’s other side as Shepard took point and Kaidan watched their backs. The group exited the room and made their way back to the tram station. They stepped onto the tram and Shepard set a course to go back to Peak 15. Selina stayed next to Liara on the tram ride but had to leave her with Tali and Shepard in the back of the Mako. Kaidan climbed in last, sealing the door and Selina lightly pressed the gas, no longer in a rush to get anywhere. She drove carefully and finally pulled into the main settlement and helped everyone climb out of the tank. Liara automatically attached to Selina who wrapped her arm around the asari again. The group made their way through the settlement and back onto the Normandy without an issue. Selina helped Liara back to her room in the med-bay and sat in a chair next to her.  
“Liara, I am so sorry.”  
“Thank you General. For everything. You did everything you could have for her, I understand that. I think I just, need some time. To deal with it. To remember her the way she would have wished me to.”  
“Of course Liara. And it’s Selina, not General. Take all the time you need. I’m here to talk, always.” Liara nodded and gave her a tentative smile. Selina smiled back a little before exiting the room and shutting the door. She could hear the tiny sobs coming from the asari as she walked further away from her.   
“General? Can I talk to you?” Chakwas was shifting somewhat anxiously as she looked at Selina.  
“Of course Doc. What’s up? Something wrong?”  
“It’s the Commander. He’s, well, a little on edge. He just seems so angry all the time. On the shakedown run, he was completely cool and collected, but now? There’s just something off. Do you have any idea as to what it might be?”  
“I’ve noticed some strange things. He forgot that we were on Therum a while back, thought it was Feros. I’ll talk to him, okay?” Chakwas nodded and Selina smiled at her before walking out of the med-bay. She quickly climbed the stairs and found Shepard standing at the Galaxy Map blankly. “Shep? Can we talk?” The man jerked around, his eyes wide and scared before calming down.  
“Selina? Yeah, yeah, of course. What is it?” Selina waved him over to one of the more private corners in the CIC before leaning against the wall.  
“Are you okay? Chakwas and I have noticed some strange things happening with you lately. You forgot we were going to Therum that one time and you are completely on edge. Something is going on.” Shepard sighed before looking around quickly.  
“Can we do this somewhere more private?” Selina nodded and he motioned for her to follow him. They made their way up to his cabin and Selina sat down on the couch. He sat across from her and leaned forward, staring at the ground. “Alright, so, just before Therum, I got a message from Hackett. You know what happened on Akuze a few years back, right? Well we got word on how it might have happened. And I guess I’ve been off because I’ve had to sort of relive the, uh, incident.”  
“Shepard, I can handle this stuff. You don’t have to. Just forward all of it to me, focus on other things.” Shepard looked up, his facial expression one of surprise.  
“You’d do that? For me?”  
“Of course Shep. Send that stuff to me, I’ll take care of it.” Shepard smiled and nodded before standing up and moving to sit next to Selina. He pulled her into a side hug and leaned his head on top of hers.  
“You’ve done so much already. I’m honestly shocked you’re still here. We don’t have much to do, just some errands to run for the Alliance. Think you and I could split them up?”  
“Course. Give me a couple of team members and send me off. I’ll be golden.” Shepard laughed and nodded before standing up. Selina stood as well and sighed. “Alright, I’m going to go deal with some politicians. I’ll see you later.” Shepard nodded and waved. Selina made her way out of the cabin and back down to her room. She sat at the desk and logged into her email. She ran a hand through her hair as she answered a few emails and eventually decided to shut it off and go to sleep. She drifted off slowly after setting an alarm.


End file.
